Historical Notes on Spanish Puppetry

Being chiefly a folk art pupperty has yielded only a fragmentary record of its past, leaving gaps in our knowledge which have challenged the historian ever since the classic work of Charles Magnin appeared a century ago.* Since then numerous other histories of the puppet theater, either national or continental in scope, have come forth from university and other presses. The first extensive, documented history of Spanish puppetry from its origins until the mid-eighteenth century was published in 1957 by J. E. Varey of the University of London.' Varey's history began as a Cambridge doctoral thesis in 1950. Perhaps it is fitting that histories of the puppet theater in France and Italy have, in fact, preceded a counterpart for Spain, in view of Spain's long dependence on her Romance neighbors for a supply of puppet showmen and other entertainers. Curiously enough, even today some of the more imaginative and artistic puppeteers in Spain acquired their training or at least their first serious interest in puppets while living abroad. What manner of men were Spain's puppet showmen? What kind of performances did they give? What was the nature of their audiences? What sort of puppets did they use? Where were their theaters or their portable booths to be found? Whenso far as we know-did this minor form of

Art · Puppetry · Visual arts · Historical and Modern Theater Studies · History · Spanish Culture and Identity · Spanish Literature and Culture Studies

• Freedom to Experiment

  Susan G Polansky•Hispania•2014

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